Gilles De Rais: Medieval Child-killer

Gilles de Rais, was a man of noble blood and a hero of the French Court. He fought alongside Joan of Arc and was was present at the Siege of Orleans, the decisive battle of the Hundred Years War. Following the Siege of Paris in his honour he was permitted to include the Royal Fleur-de-Lys on his coat of arms. At the age of just 25 he was made a Marshal of France. But he was also a reckless spendthrift who dabbled in the occult, and a vicious sexual sadist who was to murder hundreds of children. 

He was born in 1404, in the family Castle at Machecoul. He was a bright child who could be both rigorous and artistic. He learned Latin whilst still an infant but also liked to illuminate manuscripts for his own pleasure. When both his father and mother died within months of each other when he was still only aged 11 he was placed, along with his younger brother Rene de la Suze, under the tutelage of his ambitious and unscrupulous grandfather, Jean de Craon. He was determined to use his recently acquired grandsons to increase his own and their personal wealth via the marriage bed. On 30 November, 1420, aged 16, Gilles was married to Catherine de Thouars, the heiress to Poitou and the Vendee. They were to have one daughter and the marriage was to make both Gilles and his grandfather very wealthy men indeed.

Handsome and brave the young Gilles was reckless in everything he did; but he was also short-tempered and prone to bouts of violence. It wasn’t long, however, before he proved himself on the battlefield. Indeed, he appeared to revel in the carnage and brutality of warfare. He was never happier than in those places where blood had to be spilt. Decorated for bravery in the war against the English his citation read, “ For his high and commendable services and his many brave feats.” But there was to be little semblance of military discipline in the way he conducted his private life. He drank heavily and spent recklessly. He both entertained lavishly and patronised the arts at great expense to himself. Under the protection of the Duke of Brittany, if he ever found himself short of money he merely took from others by force.

In 1434, he constructed his own chapel where he would preside at prayers and take Mass in extravagant and expensive robes he had designed himself. The following year he put on a theatrical extravaganza that not only lasted the best part of a day but had in its cast more than 150 actors and 500 extras. It was all paid for out of his own purse and included laying on free food and wine for the spectators, some of whom it is believed he paid to attend performances. The affair almost bankrupted him and he sold the families properties and valuables to keep himself afloat. By June, 1435, the family had had enough and petitioned both the French King and Pope Eugene IV to curb his excesses. The Pope refused to get involved but on 2 July, 1435, a Royal edict prevented Gilles from selling any more of the families property. With his reputation already in sharp decline Gilles life had taken a darker turn. He had begun to dabble in the occult coming under the tutelage of a sinister man named Francesco Prelati. He had been promised that the occult was a means by which he could regain his fortune.